Organisational Learning in Development Co-Operation - Report Example

Running head: Workplace learning Workplace learning Name Institution Department Date Introduction For an organisation to thrive successfully in a climate of continuous improvement, a lot of effort should be made to develop its workforce. The workplace in focus is a magazine publisher which produces entertainment magazines on a weekly basis with its main focus being fashion, entertainment news, showbiz, personality features and lifestyle. To achieve this, the magazine runs four departments namely the editorial, advertising, production and circulation departments. The main issue found in the publication was the existence of a skills gap. New entrants tend to have problems merging the old and new skills. The new entrants were lacking traditional skills like user generated content and the standard of written English was poor as well as some new skills like podcasting and blogging (Fletcher, 2008). Selling and exchange of ideas through blogs and podcasts increases the quality of media as well as the market holdings for the magazine. In this era of technologically-driven organisations, workplaces should adopt and incorporate these technologies, in order to successfully compete with the other stakeholders in the business. The best strategy that can work is the integration of external training to develop the skills, action learning and coaching to facilitate skills development. In this scheme, the superiors are first to advocate for the introduction of external skills providers who are to prepare the workers with the relevant skills on blogging and podcasting, action learning to improve on the traditional skills like efficient English writing, and incorporate top management to act as coaches and mentors to ensure that the skills learned are used correctly and productively and to see that the entire workplace learning is improved. Selection of external providers and coaches should however act as the starting point for the whole process. The main aim of this report is therefore finding the best means through which work place learning can be improved. Effect of external skills providers Since the learning needs of the journalists are technologically related, there is the need to incorporate external professionals on the same so as to offer first-hand application guidelines on how to apply the required skills like blogging and podcasting. One advantage of an external provider is that, the teaching approach is through a defined curricular as opposed to using experienced workmates whose approach may be limited to only what is common in the workplace (Best, Langston, &Valence, 2003). Another advantage of an external provider over an internal one is that the approach to the individual learners is not based on any prior relationships. Hence external skills providers offer the best means through which the current skills can be impacted into the workers. The external skills provider offers a hands-on approach to skills development and there is thus a greater chance of fully increasing the knowhow of internet application to the magazines’ publications. Practice is guaranteed as well comprehensive dynamic approaches to blogging and podcasting. Why action learning Action learning is the process of taking the workplace weaknesses and analysing their dynamics which includes implementing the laid out solutions based on the positive criticism of workers and through all the faults found so as to improve and avoid repetition of the same errors (Mumford, 1997). By adopting this strategy, errors arising from user generated content and from written English will be reduced and if possible completely solved. Having an action learning approach also ensures that the new entrants into the magazine learn from their mistakes by constantly being positively criticized and guided by their colleagues. This is because people tend to learn more effectively from their colleagues in the same position (Pedler, 1997). Hence, by giving responsibility to those who contribute to the business weaknesses, there are gains to overall commitment to any expected solution, and this encourages the employees to work in groups. The incorporation of action learning also contributes to changing the overall learning culture of the workplace since it introduces synergy into the workplace, which consequently improves the entire learning condition (Hodkinson, 2008). Why coaching and mentoring The coaching and mentoring program comprises of professionals who offer their services either for payment or for philanthropic roles (Fournies, 2000). Through these services, the coaches and mentors facilitate the exploration of individual needs, desires, thoughts and most importantly, skills. By having the workers undergo external facilitation and training on the website utilisation skills, that is, knowledge on blogs and podcasting, the coaching services comes in to effect and furnish these learned skills as well as ensure their effective usage and application. These services help in supporting the workers set the best goals towards achieving the preferred skills. Moreover the coaching and mentoring approaches will help the learning workforce increase commitment to actions aimed at fully adapting to the magazines production goals and production optimisation, since they develop a personal lasting change and growth. Through integrating these strategies into the learning schemes, the workers will feel appreciated, will change their overall working culture will eventually accept challenges, positive criticism and will embrace the newly acquired skills (Fournies, 2000). Supervisors’ approval Before commencement of any activity, the go ahead should come from the management. Once this idea has been discussed and approved, it is the mandate of the supervisors to give approval for its implementation. First, the choice of whether its viable to incorporate external providers into the business rests with the management, after which terms of service are to be discussed (Gasskov, 2006). The payment schemes and duration of training are to be discussed before anything commences. Other than the external providers’ affairs, the issue of coach selection has to come from the management with guidelines on the best way to go about it without altering the running of the print publication. Lastly, for the whole process to succeed there must be the accompanying facilities and assets to aid in the skills implementation. The top management should thus approve their acquisition and purchase. Determining the best external provider The first step in the acquisition of an external provider is by making a public application so as to have a broader choice for the best skills provider. After determining a sample from which to choose, interviews and past work records may be a guiding factor in determining the presence of the following vital characteristics. To start with, the external skills provider should be aligned with the established goals, be part of a long term strategy, be customized, research based and capacity building (Hussel, & Steiner, 2004). Other than these qualities, some other important characteristics should be observed like the degree to which the external providers focus on content as compared to process and their mode of delivery, that is, does the provider leave space for the workforce to learn on their own or do they offer all the materials to the learners. Apart from selection based on service delivery, other factors like the cost of implementation, availability of external providers and the time for the training should also be considered. After analysing all the qualities of the interested providers and selecting one that best fits the requirements for the company, the deal should be sealed in writing. Then, the workers should be given a notification informing them of the commencement dates and any other related information. Coach selection By having internal coaching, a closer monitoring of the workers’ skills development will be possible as well as an evaluation of how much the workers’ have learned. A clear strategy should thus be implemented so that the superiors from the managerial team with the best coaching qualities can be selected and trained in the coaching skills. The coach’s significant experience in strategy formulation, forecasting and good inter-organizational relation are some key determining factors to selection. (Runderman, McCauley, & Velsor, 2010). The presence of flexible and versatile behaviours in a coach ensures that their effectiveness while working with different genders, cultures and across all levels in the organisation. The choice of a coach should also be based on presence and credibility to ensure that the coach being selected displays excellent knowledge, expertise and experience. This enhances communication and skills delivery to the workers. However, great consideration should be given to schedules and overall responsibilities of the given manager. Managers overly occupied with external affairs pertaining to the business should not be considered for the position of a coach since there are possibilities of unavailability to facilitate skills development. Furthermore, since according to Forss, Cracknell and Stromquist (1998) not everyone is a good teacher, volunteering should be taken as a good teaching quality and hence good coaching capabilities. Coach training The coaches have to undergo through empowerment and educative seminars so as to enable proper facilitation of skills development among the workers. This training thus emphasises demonstrations on the best way to master given skills without compromising personnel’s or other people’s lives. Another aspect emphasised while training the coaches is the emphasis on the company values. Values like individual respect, zero tolerance on failure and ensuring excellent performance have to be maintained for learning to proceed smoothly. The inclination towards career building while in training is stressed to increase the workers’ efficiency. Moreover, despite the main goal being to increase the skills, care should be taken to ensure that the prior acquired skills are maintained. A manager acts as the boundary between the organisation and the outside world. There is thus a need to train the manager on self-actualisation so as stop thinking about the job’s specification but rather think of moulding individual skills to fit them. Other than the focus on achieving defined objectives in the workers’ training, the coach’s training is geared towards achieving long-term objectives and effect change to the whole system. Personality build-up thus serves as the core importance in coach training to ensure a reciprocated skills development for the workers. Implementation Different approaches can be applied to ensure effective skills development by the external providers. The management can decide on incorporating the external providers into the business for certain durations of time at intervals depending on the departmental workload, that is, training can operate in cycles starting with one department to the other. For example, when one department like the advertising department is working on the magazine, training can proceed with the other departmental workers while their workload is small. This type of approach is very effective as some of the practical approaches undertaken may be linked to some article publications. Another approach is having the workers attend off-the-job training in the form of workshops or seminars for given durations of time and facilitated by the external provider (Velde, 2000). This approach ensures that the overall publication facilities and premises are not affected during the working hours. Through these seminars and workshops, the workers are taught on how to use software like HTML so as to be proficient in posting articles in blogs and podcast and to acquire the knowhow to acquire article contents from the search engines for publishing in their magazine. Once the external providers have provided these skills, both theory and practical, they can then conduct follow-ups by sending external monitors to check on their implementation and perfection in workplace. On the implementation of skills development through coaching, the management should first formulate a schedule that will not comprise on the time allocated for the magazine’s production. The main objective to be achieved through coaching is the perfection of some user-generated content and overall contents collection from society. One of the ways to approach the coaching strategy is by offering the workers an on the job approach with close scrutiny (Nigro, 2008). In so doing, the workers feel appreciated since support is offered to help in contents generation. Another possible approach is by allocating time off during business hours so that the workers undergo through training on the best ways to undertake certain responsibilities and activities. For example, the coaches can demonstrate the means of collecting the best and enticing stories by explaining to the journalists what to look for in an article so that they can acquire clues towards a better publication. The coaches can also embark on one-on-one interaction with the workers in a bid to offer guidelines and facilitations towards better skills development (Rylatt, 2001). Furthermore, the style and attitude of the coach can have greater and dramatic effects on the workers’ motivation, especially when empathy is displayed by the coach (Miller & Rollnick, 1991). Through one-on-one interaction, confidence and trust is built between the workers and the management which adds to the overall change in the business culture, one of the many hurdles to improving workplace learning (Connor & Pokora, 2007). Generally, the coach should concentrate on growing the skills of the workers, for which GROW, namely Goals, Reality, Options and Will should be the guiding factor (Connor & Pokora, 2007). These guiding elements should help the coach fulfil the needs of the organisation in terms of skills development. First, a workable goal is defined, then the reality of the current situation is assessed, the possible options are presented and analysed and lastly action is taken. The last strategy is the adoption of action learning so as to increase the language efficiency of the new entrants. This type of learning focuses on improvement from experience where, the employees work in groups and point out the faults committed by one of their own and try to give some practical solutions that might amend this. The whole process can be split into several steps. The first step in the implementation of action learning is by highlighting the objectives. In this case, the objective is to upgrade on the quality of written English for the magazine, a need greatly portrayed by new entrants to the publication. This should then call for group formation, which has been found to expansively increase learning in the workplace (Hodkinson, 2006). The working group should be formed from different departments so as to convene an integration of skills and expertise. This would help in expertise exchange where experts in one field can offer their views on matters pertaining to their expertise and may in return be guided on matters where they lack expertise. The issues at hand should then be analysed to identify the most applicable solutions. Through accepting their weaknesses, the workers should brief the group members on what is expected and call for the group’s recommendations. The group should then discuss the possible genesis of the problem. In so doing they shift the focus from a short term to a long term solution. When the cause of the problem is dealt with, chances of the problem re-emerging are minimised (Revans, 1980). Action strategies should then be developed which may include group members proof reading articles written and comprehensively making corrections and suggestions where errors exist. After developing the workable action strategies action should then be taken to implement these strategies as per the agreement between the group members. Group members might even decide to exchange articles for grammar-related error checking. Consistency in the strategy implementation should then be encouraged with a continuous repetition of the cycle (McGill & Brockbank, 2004). This is meant to ensure that the weaknesses are fully eliminated. By action learning, creativity is enhanced, the approach to complex problems is made simpler, teamwork is encouraged and strengthened, the organisational cultures are changed, leading to an improved workplace leaning and the outcomes are tangible and practical. Evaluation For the three approaches of; action learning, external providers and coaching, there should be clear cut criteria for evaluating their effectiveness. Starting with internet skills provision by external facilitators, the management should assign the workers with tasks of posting podcasts as well as blogs on the internet. These blogs and podcasts should be related with the publications of the magazine. Articles carrying fashion contents, personality features and other captivating information should be posted, and responses from customers monitored. Logical response from the first postings should indicate the competence of the workforce; however, a poor response should indicate that much more should be done (Rothwell, 2000). The journalists should also be asked to make individual blogs so as to broaden their articles’ collection holdings from worldwide contributors as well as to market the publication. Regarding the coaching strategy, since the coach’s main aim is to facilitate the perfection of the traditional skills like shorthand and contents collection, the workers can be assigned tasks of collecting their own information from the fields and their skills gauged by the coaches for perfection. The new entrants can also be asked to convert audio contents into short hand and have their speed and proficiency noted. Lastly on the issue of action learning, the management can ask the workers to write articles of a defined length and topic so as to check on their proficiency in written English. Grammatical errors and flow of information should then be counterchecked to see whether there are visible improvements from their previous writings. Another approach to check for improvement is to involve the external providers to act as monitors and to use professional tests to gauge the level of competence. Possible inhibitors When these strategies are implemented, all is not expected to flow smoothly. One of the factors that might slow down the process may be lack of funds in the organisation to cater for the overall expenses starting from the payment of external providers, acquisition of learning facilities and sponsorship of workers to attend seminars and workshops. Another possible inhibitor of workplace learning is the presence non responsive management and employees (Ellinger, 2005). Some workers may not be willing to adapt to the new changes; therefore any attempt to educate them or increase their scope of knowledge is met with a cold response which may highly impede action learning which requires collaboration working among the workers. The same issue may impede the efforts of coaches to facilitate skills development among the workers. A coach’s effort may lack effect on a worker due to their cold response. Time is another factor that might impede workplace learning, as the organisational schedule may be too tight to accommodate extra training time. This may be due to external or even internal pressure to increase publication copies. The workers may then be left with a limited time span in which nothing worthwhile can be done. Lack of facilities to cater for both the organisational and training needs is another issue that might slow down the process. Consequently, training would depend on available facilities but not on the need for skills development. Lastly, organisational bureaucracy may impede this process due to unstable management or unreliable supervisors. Conclusion From the above argument, the three approaches, that is, action learning, coaching and external provider, workplace learning can be enhanced. By increasing the employees’ skills, performance will increase and so will the overall productivity. Hence, skills development posses as the greatest learning need in most organisations and the best way to deal with it is by using the strategies above. The approach develops collaborative working, use of current technology to increase production and the merging of old and new skills. Hence, through increased cohesion among workers and positive lasting relationships between the management and the rest of the work-force, the entire workplace learning is improved. References Best, R, Langston, A. C, & Valence, G. (2003). Workplace strategies and facilities management. Oxford: Butterworh. Connor, M, & Pokora, J. (2007). 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